Nxivm Founder Keith Raniere Guilty in Sex Trafficking Case Involving 'Smallville's' Allison Mack

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Matt Baron/BEI/REX/Shutterstock

NxivmfounderKeith Raniere, the leader ofthe controversial New York-based self-help group, was found guilty Wednesday of federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges, according to John Marzulli, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.

Prosecutors described Nxivm as a sexual pyramid scheme involving sex slaves, with Raniere at the top. The group has long marketed itself as a group that empowers people and helps them manage emotional trauma, but prosecutors said it has a darker side built on coercion and manipulation.

CNN reportsthat US attorney Richard Donoghue said that “Raniere, who portrayed himself as a savant and a genius, was in fact a massive manipulator, a con man, and the crime boss of a cult-like organization involved in sex trafficking, child pornography, extortion, compelled abortions, branding, degradation and humiliation.”

Investigators said Raniere, who was known as “Vanguard” to his followers, occupied the top of a pyramid called DOS, with tiers of female “slaves,” each of whom could become a “master” to slaves beneath them.

One former devotee described Nxivmas a “cult,”and the group has been the subject of scrutiny from both law enforcement and journalists after itcame under fire fromDynastyactress Catherine Oxenberg, whose daughter, India, joined in 2011. (India has since left the group.)

Matt Baron/BEI/REX/Shutterstock

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According to arguments prosecutors made in court documents, Mack allegedly demanded that the group’s slaves partake in “readiness” drills requiring them to respond to their masters at any time of night. Mack’s slaves were also allegedly “kept seriously sleep-deprived and emaciated to the point where they stopped menstruating.”

Raniere was arrestedin March 2018 in Mexico.

Prior to his trial, Raniere had sought to have the charges against him dismissed. In a motion, his attorneys described Nxivm as a “wonderful humanitarian organization” that is “dedicated to achieving peace on a global scale.”

The filing adds: “If there was a polar-opposite of an organized crime family, Nxivm would be it.”

The motion further claims that “Nxivm members have sought to end the violence in Mexico, have introduced tools useful to people with difficult conditions, such as Tourette’s syndrome, have pioneered multi-linguistic schools for young children, who would become proficient in multiple languages and later multi-cultural adults, and have developed approaches to help people lead happier, more productive, more enriched lives.”

Raniere’s attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment and it was unclear if they plan to appeal the verdict.

source: people.com